On Mon, 02 Jan 2017 21:56:59 -0000, wrote:

On Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 12:56:49 PM UTC-4, Bob F wrote:
The thermocouple on my 7yo Whirlpool water heater went out Sat. The stores open
on the weekend had only right hand thread thermocouples, and as far as I could
find out, the manufacturer would sell me a conversion kit for $31 which would
take 10 days to receive. (out of warrantee)

My solution: I carefully clamped the threaded fitting on my old thermocouple
end-to-end in my vice so one face was up, then used a 1" cutting disc in my
dremel tool to cut a slot into the fitting so I could slide it off of the tube.
I slid the threaded fitting on my new thermocouple down out of the way, then
slipped the slotted one over the tube and carefully screwed it into the valve
fitting. It works perfectly.

If you have a several years old Whirlpool or American Products water heater, you
might want to check to see if it has the left hand thread on the thermocouple.
If it does, and it is still in warrantee, contact the manufacturer now so you
can get the conversion kit for free ahead of the time you really need it.

The early symptom of failure on my thermocouple is that it took 1 1/2-2 minutes
of holding down the pilot light to get it to re-light and stay lit. The new one
took about 20 seconds.

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This listing by Bob F is oh so accurate and effective! On 1/2/2017 here in Buffalo, Bob's fix came into play on a non-functioning water heater. The water heater pilot would not stay on due to an aged thermocouple so it was replaced with a new one only to find out that the removed defective thermocouple was indeed reversed thread (lefty tighty). The replacement thermocouple that was installed could not be hooked up as it was regularly threaded or "righty tighty."

Bob's solution with the dremel tool was used and it worked to perfection! The old left tightened fitting was removed from the defective thermocouple with a length wise slot made with a dremel tool. The left tightened fitting was removed and placed above the fitting on the new right tighten replacement thermocouple. The new thermocouple screwed into place into the reversed threaded junction on the hot water heater and hot water was possible once more.

Thank you so much Bob for the solution as everywhere we called no one had any
reverse threaded thermocouples. Kits were available online to adapt right tighten thermocouples to be used in reverse threaded thermocouple heaters, but the costs were jacked up in regards to "adapter kits" that would be sent to you after you doled out the ridiculous quick shipping fees.

Threads turn right, end of story. Anyone designing something the other way round is a ****ing idiot (or Muslim) and must be sent into the centre of the sun.

--
If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."